Superhydrophobic PU-based coatings with mechanochemical durability
In a recently published study, multi-type nanoparticles in superhydrophobic PU-based coatings were studied towards self-cleaning, self-healing and mechanochemical durability.
Mechanochemical durability is a key limited factor for superhydrophobic coatings to produce the real applications in some important fields. Herein, the superhydrophobic PU-based coatings were firstly synthesised with silica particles (F-SiO2) and carbon nanotube (F-CNT) as the main fillers and the reinforced mediums, respectively. The superhydrophobic coatings showed excellent water repellency with higher water contact angle of 154.3° and lower sliding angle of only 5°. Also, the impacting droplets could rapidly bounced off the superhydrophobic coatings with the contact time of 11 ms. The superhydrophobic coatings exhibited the excellent self-cleaning property.
Robust mechanochemical durability
Furthermore, the as-prepared superhydrophobic coatings (F-CNT to F-SiO2 mass ratio was 3:3) possessed the robust mechanochemical durability with higher bonding strength to the aluminum substrates, and the coatings could retain their high superhydrophobicity after over 100 cycles of sand abrasion under a load condition of 1.1 kPa. In strongly acidic and alkaline solutions for 6 h, the composite coatings were intact and showed high ability to resist the chemical erosion. Even though the superhydrophobic coatings suffered UV damage, the water repellency could be restored under thermal treatment at 135 °C for 3 h.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 159, October 2021.
